7.21.2015

It is that time again here at MTG Realm when we start brewing up all sorts of crazy and far-fetched deck lists with the release of a new Magic: the Gathering set. Over the next few posts we wanted to try out the following standard constructed lists at our kitchen table with the playgroup before 'graduating' the list to Friday Night Magic -

• Izzet (blue / red) Thopters featuring Pia and Kiran Nalaar

• Orzhov (white / black) Enchant featuring Helm of the Gods, and

• Golgari (black / green) Elves featuring Dwyne and company

Anwywhoos - straight on in to our very first (and certainly not last) iteration of Izzet Thopters. There was a rather succinct artifact sub-theme with Magic Origins and the list essentially builds itself. The real trick here is to start cutting the poorly performing chaff over the next few weeks. With our first build, we attempted to kick in everything and the kitchen sink to see what worked well -

4x Ornithopter3x Bonded Construct2x Ghostfire Blade2x Springleaf Drum3x Ensoul Artifact1x Chief Engineer1x Jace, Vryn's Prodigy3x Shrapnel Blast3x Thopter Engineer2x Chief of the Foundry2x Artificer's Epiphany3x Pia and Kiran Nalaar2x Thopter Spy Netwok2x Hangarback Walker4x Shivan Reef3x Temple of Epiphany4x Darksteel Citadel2x Foundry of the Consuls2x Tomb of the Spirit Dragon2x Mana Confluence3x Mountain3x IslandWe think this may be a good starting point at which to start getting the feel of this thing and in a few weeks hope to start focusing on where we want to steer this next.

7.20.2015

Magic Origins is now out and you may have even seen a few new brews or modified builds during the Friday Night Magic Launch. We absolutely love the few short weeks after a new set release as Magic: the Gathering players let imaginations fly with new game strategies. Within a month or so, standard constructed will evolve and many players will simply adopt with what seems to be doing well in the large regional tournaments or what the Pros are playing on the circuit. We've always appreciated gaming with players who ignore the 'status quo' of the established popular decklists.

And so, we launch somewhat ironically into an article about the results from the weekend's StarCityGames Standard Open in Chicago. Why? We want to know whether some of our Magic Origins card evaluations were correct - that, and we have a few new lists (examples - U/R Thopters and Bant Enchantments) that are almost complete and want to see how these would fare against the evolving metagame. Anywhoos, here are the Top 16 finalists.

7.17.2015

Happy Friday indeed as it has now finally come to the much anticipated Magic Origins Release. With Magic: the Gathering fans taking part in the PreRelease last weekend, tonight at Friday Night Magic at local gaming stores, players will now launch into a new format, whichever that format may be - standard, modern, commander, etc. Speaking of local gaming stores, our very own OMG! Games, in Barrie Ontario has a fun filled weekend, kicking off of course with FNM tonight, and then a whack of good-stuff on Saturday including a 20% off sale on MTG singles and a preliminary PTQ.

7.15.2015

So far this week, we have been touching all our new cards from the Magic Origins PreRelease last weekend and beginning to think upon new and revised decklists for standard format. One of the first lists we want to try out at this Friday Night Magic event at our local gaming store, OMG! Games here in Barrie is Blue / Red Thopters, but we'll yatter about that list a bit latter on. Speaking of OMG! Games, they are scheduled to run a Preliminary Pro Tour Qualifier to the first Pro Tour of 2016 this weekend (Saturday 18th July) with a ton of amazing prizes including a 1st prize of $500 cash ($600 credit) and an invite to the Regional Pro Tour Qualifier for the first Pro Tour of 2016.

Anywhoos, we should get on with today's article post which should be of great interest to Magic: the Gathering players around the world - this fall's 'Battle for Zendikar' set.

(Sean) Shoutout to all the #mtg players we met at #SDCC2015! We hope you enjoyed yesterday's panel. A recording will be available soon!

Since posted, we have not yet heard back from WotC as to a video from the San Diego Comic Con MTG Panel, so we want to follow through with a series of (live) tweets from the panel showing some really exciting Battle for Zendikar arts 'n' illustrations -

Zendikar's Halimar inland sea is separated from the natural ocean by a massive sea wall ('sea gate') - you can see the Lighthouse in the background here. Planeswalkers Nissa and Gideon battling Eldrazi brood.

7.13.2015

We hope all had a great weekend, whether you were at a Magic Origins PreRelease or attending San Diego Comic Con (SDCC), or even both. As you may have guessed from us gushing over on our MTG Realm Tumblr stream, we took in a midnight Magic Origins PreRelese event over at Koros Games in Orangeville, Ontario and had a blast. Here's a bit of the PreRelease before we get into some of the big Magic: the Gathering news out of SDCC.

The first PreRelease Pack colours to go were white, red, and black, pretty much in that order. We saddled up with a green pack and when popped, we could not be more happier - a foil Nissa promo - shown on our lucky BCW Supplies Playmat. Our most valuable players were Rhox Maulers, especially when paired with with pump spells such as Titanic Growth and Might Leap. Since we got up really, really early for work Friday morning, we simply ran out of steam by the end of the second match and retired for the evening.~

The Wizards of the Coast Panel at SDCC 2015 was not streamed unfortunately but there were a number of 'live tweet' from the Wizards MTG Twitter account. There was also a promise that there would be a recording available soon. First up, the Panel had two previews for the upcoming From the Vault : Angels during the panel at SDCC - say hello to the Akroma sisters !

There was also a good measure of discussion on how WotC now presents storylines with references to the recent installments of the Magic Origins stories provided on the Uncharted Realms column. There were also some very exciting images previewed for the next set, Battle for Zendikar, to be released early October 2015. From the Q & A portion of the panel (and MaRo's Blogatog followup), we also learn that we may expect 'Allies' to return to the revisitation to Zendikar. Pop back to MTG Realm tomorrow as we further discuss Battle for Zendikar.

7.10.2015

In less than twelve hours, we will be at the midnight PreRelease event for Magic Origins at Koros Games in Orangeville, Ontario which is about an hour and change north of Toronto. You may recall an article we had posted last year about this very cool store and great gaming community. If you are in the neighbourhood, drop by Koros Games and say hi. A throng of Magic: the Gathering fans will be the first to get their paws on new cards and game until the early light. MTG Realm will have a full report on the prerelease tournament with video, pics and a write-up as to how this set plays in sealed format.

Anywhoos, we have to get on to today's articles - Magic Origins Intro Packs.

The full decklists went up on the mothersite yesterday. If you are new to the game, Intro Packs are designed with new players in mind. Even more seasoned players will pick these up and have them battle against eachother. Each Intro Pack comes along with two rares, one of which is an alternative-art foil card. Here is the full list 'o' goodies -

7.09.2015

As expected this week, Magic: the Gathering fans were treated to the decklists for all the Magic Origins Intro Packs as well as the Clash Packs. After reading through the decklist for the Clash Packs, we are going to need a breather - the decklists are perhaps one of the best ones since Wizards of the Coast started producing Clash Packs. We will get into the nitty gritty, but for now, here is the 4.1.1. on this particular product if you are a newer player -

Magic Origins - Clash PacksRelease Date: July 17, 2015MRSP $30

The Clash Pack comes with instructions that show how to combine cards from each of its decks to create a new deck designed to be equal in power to what is expected from an Event Deck. This particular product is designed to prepare players for Friday Night Magic and Standard format tournaments.

Players can enjoy battling with a friend using the two ready-to-play decks, then combine them together into a single, powerful deck to play at your next Friday Night Magic event!

~We love the excellent alternate art cards WotC had commissioned. Having an alternate art for Siege Rhino which is seeing popular play currently in standard format has our attention. Having a valuable rare like Collected Company has now made it a no-brain decision to pick up this Clash Pack. We can't wait to have these two lists battle eachother, and will likely swap the alternate arts with regular in order to pimp out our various Commander and Tiny Leader builds.

7.06.2015

Here in Central Ontario, we are now experiencing the first proper heatwave of summer. For Magic: the Gathering players worldwide, things are also heating up as everyone is now looking to this weekend's Magic Origins PreRelease event. Like most, here at MTG Realm, we are reviewing all the new cards after last Thursday's full reveal and are now evaluating the cards that would make for a strong sealed event. As is tradition, we'll be off to our local gaming store, OMG! Games and hope to report a Top 8 success. To find a Magic Origins event near you, pop on over to the 'Locator'.

We would highly recommend reading WotC staffer Gavin Verhey's article today (linky over here) on the mothersite to make the most of your PreRelease event. For today's article, we want to confirm with you what to expect in the Magic Origins PreRelease Pack.

Magic Origins prerelease packs give players the opportunity to learn the origin of their favorite Planeswalker. There are five prerelease packs, one for each planeswalker's color - White (Gideon), Blue (Jace), Black (Liliana), Red (Chandra), and Green (Nissa). The pack's theme does not guarantee a specific Planeswalker card (obviously).

Each comes with a 7-card seeded booster pack that corresponds with that color. When registering for the Prerelease tournament, each player chooses one. The seeded booster pack will assist players in building a deck by providing a starting point in their chosen color. Each seeded booster pack contains a stamped premium promo card, which players may include in their tournament decks. The prerelease pack further contains 6 regular booster packs, 1 story booklet and 1 Spindown life counter.

7.03.2015

A big w00t to all our American cousins to the south who are celebrating Independence Day this weekend. Magic: the Gathering players are also celebrating the full revelation of all Magic Origins cards today over on the card image gallery on the mothersite.

We are off to OMG! Games, here in Barrie, Ontario later tonight and will most definitely be tattering about the last two rates revealed including the remainder of the cards. Here's the two and the full list below.Orbs of Warding, 5 Artifact, RareYou have hexproof.If a creature would deal damage to you, prevent 1 of that damage.One orb to guard the body, one to protect the mind, and one to shield the soul.illus. Johann Bodin # 234/272

7.02.2015

We hope all fellow Canadians among our followers have had a pleasant Canada Day yesterday and to our American cousins to the south, we wish a safe 'n' happy Independence Day weekend.

Given the good showing of artifacts and Enchantments in this next and last core set, we hope to be able to go with Thopters (and what-not) during the PreRelease event at our local gaming store, OMG! Games here in Barrie and perhaps even take a run with a Constellation / Enchantment strategy in the new standard. Aywhoos, Let us get straight into Magic Origins spoilers and previews -

LoadingReadyRun preview - All Hail the DurdleBot !! Big, bulky, akward like that introvert linebacker. You could use a recursion tech like Whip of Erebos or perhaps an un-tapper like Kiora's Follower to reset but we don't think this would pass muster for most.~Sigil of the Empty Throne, 3WW Enchantment, RareWhenever you cast an enchantment spell, put a 4/4 white Angel creature token with flying onto the battlefield.When Asha left Bant, she ensured that the world would have protection and order in her absence.illus. Cyril Van Der Haegen # 31/272

Chinese MTG Facebook preview. We loved this card in Conflux and hope to make the most of the enchantments in Magic Origins and of course with Theros block before rotation, perhaps even floating a constellation build that actually may not be rubbish.~Willbreaker, 3UU Creature - Human Wizard, RareWhenever a creature an opponent controls becomes the target of a spell or ability you control, gain control of that creature for as long as you control Willbreaker."Master your mind, or I shall master it for you."illus. Dan Scott # 84/2722/3

Mothersite preview. Rather interesting and potentially powerful should you fire off a spell targeting multiple creatures like Curse of the Swine or an Icy Blast.~New non-rare Magic Origins cards out today includes -

• Foundry of the Consuls - Uncommon Land tapping for a colorless or paying five, sac and giving two thopters.

7.01.2015

Joyeux Fête du Canada. The British North American act of 1867 created an environment in which Magic: the Gathering could be played freely within the Dominion of Canada.

Anywhoos, enough of that nonsense - everything is closed up our way so we are most definitely on top of Magic Origins spoilers and previews as the internet never takes a day off. Here are today's cardboard awesomeness. ~ A whole bunch of new Magic Origins cards via Spell Slingers (video belwo) - Anointer of Champions, Auramancer, Blightcaster, Blood-Cursed Knight, Fleshbag Marauder, Magmatic Insight, Reclusive Artificer , Skysnare Spider, Somberwald Alpha, Stalwart Aven, Tragic Arrogance, and Zendikar's Roil.

~

Tragic Arrogance, 3WWSorcery, RareFor each player, you choose from among the permanents that player controls an artifact, a creature, an enchantment, and a planeswalker. Then each player sacrifices all other non land permanents he or she controls.The spear thrown by Kytheon's own hand was the weapon that felled his friends.illus. Winona Nelson, 38/272

Mothersite preview. Five mana for a one-sided board reset is a fair price in our books. Love this card.~Erebos's Titan, 1BBB Creature - Giant, Mythic RareErebos's Titan has indestructible as long as no opponent controls a creature.Whenever a creature leaves an opponent's graveyard, you may discard a card. If you do, return Erebos's Titan from your graveyard to your hand.illus. Peter Morbacher # 94/2725/5

MagicBlogs.De German preview. Perhaps it is the lack of caffeine but we think there may be only a very finite number of decklists which this may be appropriate in.~Gilt-Leaf Winnower, 3BB Creature - Elf Warrior, RareMenace (This creature can't be blocked except by two or more creatures.)When Gilt-Leaf Winnower enters the battlefield, you may destroy target non-Elf creature whose power and toughness aren't equal.illus. Viktor Titov # 99/2724/3

Magic Show preview. Nice stats on this card and menace is sweet - go green / black elves!~Herald of the Pantheon, 1G Creature - Centaur Shaman, RareEncahntment spells you cast cost 1 less to cast.Whenever you cast an enchantment spell, you gain 1 life.The distinction of bearing the gods' banner is nothing compared to the glory of being closer to Nyx.illus. Jason A. Engle # 180/2722/2

The Magic Tutor preview. Love it! Green / white enchantress lists are very near and dear to our heart.~Nissa's Revelation, 5GG Sorcery, RareScry 5, then reveal the top card of your library. If it's a creature card, you draw cards equal to its power and gain life equal to its toughness.illus. Izzy # 191/272

MTG Japan preview. Pretty sweet late game card with a decidedly powerful effect which could swing a game your way.~Outland Colossus, 3GG Creature - Giant, RareRenown 6 (When this creature deals combat damage to a player, if it isn't renowned, put six +1/+1 counters on it and it becomes renowned.)Outland Colossus can't be blocked by more than one creature.illus. Ryan Pancoast # 193/2726/6